We are bringing back your favourite series of Let’s Talk IP news this week! With our updates you can expect to hear all about the latest IP innovations and technology, legal rows over IP, how disruptive IP is shaping the world around us, and more.
Vaccine IP: Omicron’s Introduction is Impacting the IP Row Between Pharmaceuticals and Developing Countries
Early this year, experts had warned us that vaccine inequality could become the leading cause of future virus mutations.
And now with the Omicron variant and it’s 30 new mutations circulating across the globe, public outrage has soared with more fingers pointing at and criticising pharmaceutical corporations for their reluctance to share patent rights. The major pharmaceuticals haven’t been the only ones receiving the blame though, the west has been accused of stockpiling vaccines and bolstering vaccine inequality between rich and poorer countries.
The EU, UK and Switzerland have backed their opposition of waiving the vaccine’s intellectual property rights with arguments claiming that the vaccine patents help grow innovation in the private sector, and that most developing countries lack the technical knowledge and equipment anyway, to produce the jabs to an acceptable standard.
As multiple scientific bodies and individuals have pointed out, the era of COVID-19 will only end with proper allocation of vaccines to all countries and the intellectual property row will continue to be a significant barrier to this move.
You can read the full article here.
5G Services, Paused by Verizon and AT&T
Photo Credit: Bloomberg
Verizon and AT&T’s launch of the much anticipated 5G network has been delayed due to concerns from the aviation industry regarding the safety implications posed by the wireless signals.
With the original launch planned for Jan 5th, the two telecom giants initially rejected the request from the Federal Aviation Administration, but announced on Jan 3rd that they would be postponing the release.
The request had been made on the basis of concerns regarding how the C-Band spectrum 5G wireless signals could interfere with the aircraft’s ability to compute radio altitude, and especially in low visibility conditions.
The conversation of litigation has been brought up by the aviation industry, where the 5G providers could face legal action forcing The Federal Communications Commission to temporarily halt their 5G network. AT&T wrote “We know aviation safety and 5G can co-exist and we are confident further collaboration and technical assessment will allay any issues,” in their statement regarding the two week postponement of the new service launch.
Further talks of ensuring to not set up towers near certain airports and other air safety assessment measures are planned to take place over this two week period before the launch of the 5G network.
For the full story, click here.
Earnity is Pulled Into IP Fraud Row for Cred’s Bankruptcy
Photo Credit: Coindesk
When Cred, a crypto lending platform, filed for bankruptcy in November 2020 after $500 million in liabilities, many thought they had heard the last of them. However Earnity, a DeFi (decentralized finance) startup, has now been pulled into the case against Cred as it is believed that former Cred executives came together to form Earnity soon after.
The trust acting in the interest of Cred lenders alleges that Earnity “smuggled” intellectual property by purchasing Cred’s assets from the trust without disclosing their relationship to the bankrupt crypto startup. After Earnity was subpoenaed, they supplied the courts with limited evidence thus leading to a second request of additional information.
Eyes are on Earnity, as Cred’s legal case continues, while others will also be waiting for the final result of investigation against the DeFi startup.
For all the details on the case, click here.
And that’s a wrap on Let’s Talk IP 3.0! What was your favourite article in this series? Make sure you subscribe to our Cosmonauts mailing list, where we bring you the latest trending IP news and Cosmonauts IP events in 2022!
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Our IP Events
Cosmonauts holds some of the most innovative and diverse IP events in Europe where we bring together top experts across various firms and industries to discuss developments in the world of IP. Check out some of our 2022 IP conferences taking place:
Dublin IP and R&D Summit 2.0, March 22nd – 23rd 2022
London IP Week 5.0, September 20th – 21st 2022
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